Social Media and Flash Mobs: The Future of Crime?

Is Big Brother watching? Should he be? The
advent of the internet has led to innumerable opportunities for the
would-be criminal, from identity theft to hacked bank accounts. The
latest emerging criminal opportunity taps into the future of the
internet: social networking. This is the same social networking that
lets you catch up with your high school friend who you haven’t heard
from since 10th grade home economics class. It’s also the
same social networking that gave wings to the Arab Spring which has so
far toppled dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Social media is
continuing its evolution and is now facilitating criminal organization
with little or no advance preparation. In Maryland a recent flash mob,
organized on social networking sites, robbed a 7-11 convenience store
while the clerk looked on helplessly. There have been social media
inspired beatings in Philly and swarms of teens charging buses and robbing passengers in Chicago. Law enforcement clearly needs to address these crimes, but what tools should be in their toolbox?

Monitoring Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites for
potential criminal activity is an obvious answer but an ineffective
one. The cost and manpower to randomly troll these sites versus the
chances of stumbling upon a criminal conspiracy makes it a losing
proposition. Facing the spate of flash mobs in Philadelphia, Mayor
Michael Nutter recently extended a 9 p.m. curfew for minors under the
age of 18. While this policy may have some limited success in
preventing late-night teen crime it only addresses the most superficial
of symptoms without disrupting the underlying ability to organize
criminally. In San Francisco the local transportation authority, BART, turned off cell phone service
in response to a recent planned protest. This action has been compared
to Iran’s recent authoritarian actions in response to pro-democracy
demonstrations there and treads dangerously close to outright denial of
the 1st Amendment rights of all Americans.

Social media is constantly changing and the legal system’s reaction
to social media inspired crime needs to react just as quickly. Whether
that means new laws, harsher sentences, or more police intrusion into
the on-line lives of Americans remains to be seen. One thing is
certain: social media is here to stay, and we’ll have to see whether Big
Brother comes knocking on our door in the days to come.

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